Press Release January 5, 2004

By Organic Consumers Association <www.organicconsumers.org>
For further information contact:
Ronnie Cummins 218-226-4164

The USDA Should Make Universal Mad Cow Testing Their New Year's
Resolution

OCA Responds to USDA's "Too Little Too Late" Measures

Little Marais, Minnesota--The Organic Consumers Association, a
nationwide grassroots citizens lobby, today criticized the USDA's new
Dec. 30 regulations on preventing Mad Cow Disease as "too little, too
late" and a "farce."

The USDA still needs to immediately enact:

~ Mandatory universal testing for all cattle brought to slaughter.

~ A ban on the feeding of blood, manure, and slaughterhouse waste to
livestock.

For a comprehensive critique of the USDA's recent "Too Little Too Late"
Mad Cow regulations see:

"USDA Measures Don't Go Far Enough to Protect the American Public" by
Dr. Michael Greger

/www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/greger123103a.cfm

And also:

"It's the Cow Feed Stupid"
By John Stauber, co-author of Mad Cow USA

www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/stupid123103.cfm

In Europe, where they test every cow over 30 months of age, and Japan,
where they test 100% of all cattle bound for human consumption,
authorities have found a significant number of cases of mad cow disease
in animals who appeared perfectly healthy.

How many other cows invisibly infected with the disease are ending up on
our dinner plates undetected? The cost of universal testing of every cow
destined for slaughter has been estimated as adding but a few cents per
pound to the cost of hamburger meat.

The USDA claims the more modern rapid tests for Mad Cow disease used in
Europe and Japan are less reliable and could produce '"false alarms."
While this may have been a problem with earlier tests used, there are
now Mad Cow tests on the market which have tested over 15 million cattle
samples worldwide without a single reported false alarm (false
positive).

OCA's Mad Cow Coordinator, Michael Greger, M.D. States "The USDA
decision to finally remove downer cattle from the human food supply is a
welcome departure from the past week's Pollyanna public relations, but
it can only be effective if all cows are tested at slaughter for mad
cow, before they enter the feed chain."

The second glaring omission in the USDA's December 30 announcement was
the failure to prohibit the feeding of slaughterhouse waste, blood and
manure to livestock. Excluding cattle brains, eyes, spinal cord and guts
from the human food supply is certainly a step in the right direction,
but the World Health Organization recommends that these tissues not
enter any food chain, human or animal. Unfortunately, the U.S. still
feeds those potentially risky tissues to pigs, pets and poultry. In
addition calves on non-organic dairy farms are still routinely fed
cattle blood as a milk replacer, while billions of pounds of
slaughterhouse waste and contaminated manure are still fed to America's
chickens, pigs, deer, and cattle.

"If slaughterhouse waste-derived cattle meat and bone meal is in the
feed store and it's cheaper, farmers may cut corners and feed it to
their cattle like they did in Britain even at the height of the Mad Cow
epidemic. To safeguard public health, we simply must follow Europe and
stop feeding slaughterhouse wastes, blood, and manure to all farm
animals," concluded Dr. Greger.

For comprehensive information and analysis on the Mad Cow issue, see the
top-ranked Mad Cow section on Organic Consumers Association website,
updated daily: <www.organicconsumers.org>

For interviews and background information on the Mad Cow crisis,
please
contact the following experts:

Ronnie Cummins, National Director,
Organic Consumers Association
Phone: 218-226-4164
email: <ronnie AT organicconsumers.org>
web: <www.organicconsumers.org>

John Stauber, co-author of Mad Cow USA
Phone: 608-260-9713
email: <stauber AT tds.net>
web: <www.prwatch.org>

Dr. Michael Hansen, Senior Researcher
Consumers Union
Phone: 914-378-2452
email: <hansmi AT consumer.org>

Dr. Michael Greger, MD
Mad Cow Coordinator, Organic Consumers Association
Phone: 617-524-8064
email: <mhg1 AT cornell.edu>